2008/03/03

28


a quaint white candle-light with a faint singing of a christmas song disrupted the silence and darkness of that night of the first of march in the poblacion. it was surely expected as when the hand struck past twelve in the midnight, he was to turn a year older. technically not at twelve midnight, but it was safe then to assume (generally) that the whole day should be his day, and it would definitely start after twelve midnight.


it was then and there clear already that whatever messages were to come to greet him that day would fly to limbo, as the place he chose to spend his weekend, with or without companions, was a signal-trap. he had to rely on good faith that people remembered him even to a minimum extent as to only think of it, or to a more sincere intent to accompany him, not necessarily to complete the three legends that cradled the poblacion, or simply to be there while he relished the minute significant details of the laid-back warmth of the communities that live there. raising a small glass of wine as an offering to the spirits of then and now with a prayer to join him in his humble celebration...

and as the days wore on --
stripping himself of all,
surrendering himself
to the deities --

the fog conspiring with
the sky to bring good rain;
with ridges and rocks
and river falls;

-- he finds his life
re-aligned,
once again,
re-born.

the warmest greetings on your 28th year. sincerest gratitude to those who were there in body and spirit.



6 comments:

admindude said...

Aww, good read. And the previous posts too. I'm not sure though whether you're writing your personal story or a fictional one. Maybe that's part of the beauty of it.

Enjoyed reading it and the previous posts :-)

arcibaldo said...

thanks. i'll leave the mystery about the previous posts, but about this post, it's about me. i spent my 2days leave and bday back in bakun, benguet. will post the pictures as soon as i get time to process the raw files.

Anonymous said...

happy birthday ;)
hope you had a blast!

arcibaldo said...

thanks. i did.

ugyen said...

Hey Hey... Is that your Birthday ?? if so "Happy Bleated Birthday", I was Late in Wishing you but i had been not around in Web for while.. My Pardon for not checking out!!

arcibaldo said...

hi ugyen. thanks for the greetings. i've been away too and infrequently around the web to do updates and postings.